Caps Beat Rangers, Despite Our Great Expectations

The Washington Capitals defeated the New York Rangers in convincing fashion last night, extending a series that shouldn’t have never reached do-or-die status for Ovechkin and Co., and staving off a local scorn that would’ve surely been undeserved.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves - no local team with a couple of playoff wins in a couple of seasons is worthy enough for us to expect a first-round cakewalk. Not the Caps, not the Washington Redskins, and surely not the Washington Wizards. And yet, in a lukewarm metro with lukewarm sports aspirations, the Caps have somehow emerged as the prohibitive object of our highest expectations.

I know what you’re thinking: hello, Redskins? But the differences are stark enough to place the Caps in rare and unfair air of local sports hope. The Caps don’t just have a good hockey player, they have the best hockey player in Alex Ovechkin. And the Caps are a successful hockey team in one of the least hockey-addled towns in the entire NHL, having run off a stretch of good seasons strong enough to put the years of mediocrity far enough behind us to rue any signs of weakness in their postseason play.

The Redskins? They’re feeding Mark Sanchez veal chops.

The Capitals are just getting used to playing as the favorite. As the third seed last season, they went to seven games. As the second seed in the Eastern Conference this season, it will likely take all seven to decide a winner. If they lose in the first round this season, Caps fans will likely wonder aloud about what the team needs in order to compete for a Stanley Cup.

The answer? Time and patience.

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